


we can't afford to give up

by peacheda



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: "lost" michael, 5 Seconds of Summer - Freeform, 5SOS - Freeform, M/M, Sad Michael, Silent Treatment, but hey everybody! just dropped so, calum doesn't know his dates, cuddly luke, drunk calum (for a lil bit), dumb calum, idk what to tag this, malum, ok these tags r dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-09
Updated: 2015-10-09
Packaged: 2018-04-25 13:30:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4962445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacheda/pseuds/peacheda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>michael gives calum the silent treatment and that's basically it. this was just an excuse to write malum okay let me live</p><p>- title from Hey Everybody! by 5SOS</p>
            </blockquote>





	we can't afford to give up

**Author's Note:**

> so basically the title is from Hey Everybody! bc it legit dropped at 10:16PM for me and as I type this it is 11:30PM and im still screaming
> 
> this is just malum shit bc nobody has been posting malum and it's upsetting me a lot
> 
> \+ now that i reread it there isn't much actual malum sry folks

Michael glared at the clock.

The offensive thing had been clicking away the minutes, no wait, _hours_ , and it was beginning to make the black haired boy _very_ upset. _Four hours, 22 minutes, and 43 seconds late._

Michael hated the clock.

It made the knot in his stomach tighten, and the urge to cry _that_ much larger as he watched it _tic, tic, tic_ the minutes away. Michael wanted to be angry, he wanted to be so _fucking_ angry, but all he could find in himself was sadness and anxiety and maybe just a little (a lot) of insecurity. 

Michael wanted to smash the fucking thing to pieces right now.

 _Four hours, 34 minutes, 14 seconds_ Michael's head chimed, causing him to bite back a sob of despair. He swallowed it down, though, and turned instead to the dinner he had successfully made. Michael was known for his inability to cook even the simplest of things, but be had put his mind to it, and he created a cute little pasta dinner with nicely sliced french bread and meatballs.

But, the food was left to waste as Michael sat alone. He couldn't bring himself to eat the now-cold food he had spent so much effort to cook in the first place, deciding to just sit and _wait_.

God, Michael hated waiting.

He barely held back a whimper as the clock struck 1AM. Calum had been adamant that he would be home by 8PM tonight, but five hours later, he was nowhere to be seen. Michael normally wouldn't care, he obviously knew the implications of being in a world famous band, except for the text he had received at 8:07PM.

from: calpal ♡  
hey babe, won't be home until late tonight. ash and i are going out for some drinks !!

Which obviously stated the _one_ simple truth that Michael could distinguish from this encounter: Calum had forgot about their one year anniversary. That _hurt_.

"Maybe _I_ got the dates wrong. Maybe our anniversary is January 20th and not January 19th?" Michael stated aloud, turning his blank stare from the table back to the Hell-spawned clock that was still merrily tic tok'ing away. But, he knew that he was right; that _Calum_ had forgotten the date, not him. 

He stood up, not bothering to move any of the food or plates, and made his way to the guest bedroom. Michael did _not_ want to see Calum any time soon. So, he locked the door, stripped himself of his clothes, shut off his phone, and fell onto the mattress.

No matter how hard he tried, Michael could not fall asleep. His body had made itself so sick with worry and dread, that every few minutes he had to swallow down the bile that was trying to fight its way up his mouth. Michael could only imagine what Calum was getting up to at the club, considering he was an extremely horny drunk, and many a time did Mike have to pry a humping Calum off of Luke.

"Calum would never cheat though, especially with Ashton there to supervise him." Michael tried to reason with himself, curling into a fetal position on his side. He could already tell that there was no way that he would get any sleep tonight.

What felt like years later, which was in reality only three hours, Michael could hear the front door being opened. He knew it was Calum, because of near thundering footsteps on the hardwood flooring. Michael stayed in the same position, however, staring blankly at the ceiling fan that he could barely make shape of in the darkened room.

" _Honey, I'm home_!" Michael heard Calum shout from what seemed like the living room, the drunken slur of his speech already confirming what Michael had guessed. Michael held his breath as he heard the footsteps get closer to the guest bedroom, and sighed in relief as Calum continued down the hall to the master bedroom.

This time, Michael didn't stop the tears as they began to fall silently from his eyes, nor did he make any move to wipe his glistening cheeks. Michael just bit his bottom lip, and tried to sleep.

*

Michael awoke groggily to the sunlight pouring in from the half-opened blinds. His cheeks were stiff with tried tears, and his nose felt swollen and raw. He sighed, pulling the blanket over his head and curled up on himself.

He knew in his brain that he should get up and get ready for a day full of (possibly, he wasn't quite sure) recording. However, his heart felt more strongly that he was sad and heartbroken and what he really needy was some quality Michael-and-bed time. Michael went with his heart, and continued to just lay blankly in bed as he mulled over his and Calum's relationship.

"Am I really so bad of a boyfriend that Calum didn't even want to spend our one year anniversary together?" Michael mused to himself, before letting out a whine as his stomach growled unhappily. Sighing, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Michael paused at the moment of light-headedness, before grabbing his phone and getting up fully.

He paused for a moment with his hand on the doorknob, straining to hear Calum, or anyone for that matter, outside of the door. Unable to detect a sound, Michael quietly unlocked the door with a _click_ and walked into the hallway. 

After a brief scan of the apartment and realizing he was the only one inside, he hummed contentedly and tugged on his favorite _Iron Maiden_ t-shirt and a pair of black sweats. Michael finally got around to powering up his iPhone, as he plopped down onto the couch.

"Well, fuck me." Michael raised an eyebrow at the 42 missed calls and nearly 300 text messages combined from all three of his boys, although most of them were from Calum, and opened up a new text message to Luke and Ashton

to: puke, gashton  
i'm not dead lmao why are you all freaking out

He sent the text, and had to wait barely ten seconds for Luke's reply.

from: puke  
we've been worrying for the past 5 hours where the fuck are you michael

to: puke, gashton  
i'm at my apartment? where i've been all night? how stupid are you people

Michael sighed, locking his phone and throwing it onto the cushion beside him. He didn't bother calling his boyfriend, still too  
upset and heartbroken to even _consider_ it.

It didn't take long for three lanky Australian boys to come careening through the doorway in a flurry. Luke spotted Michael first, and automatically make a nose dive to cuddle him. 

"Mikey! I was so worried, I couldn't find you, and nobody knew where you were and -" Michael cut Luke off with a hand slapped over his mouth and a deep groan.

"Shut _up_ , Luke." Michael whined, shoving his lanky friend into a sitting position before sitting (not very) elegantly in his lap, and cuddling into him. "Cuddle me."

The younger boy was quick to agree, as Michael gave the best cuddles out of the band. He was limp and pliant and warm, and loved to bury his nose in whoever he was cuddling's neck. 

Calum did nothing to hide his offended glare that was directed at the cuddling pair of boys, arms crossed and neck vein popping dramatically. 

Ashton, however, was more fixated on the dinner still left on the table. He walked closer to the table to see a sad, sunken cake with the words "Happy 1yr!" written in sloppy cursive, a large heart next to it. Ashton turned around to glare at Calum, it finally dawning on him that _yesterday_ was the Malum anniversary, only to see a fed up Michael walking out and slamming the door.

"What the fuck is up with him?" Calum grumbled, glaring at the door with hatred akin to Michael's distaste for waking up before noon.

"How about the fact that you forgot about your anniversary?" Ashton scoffed, crossing his large arms together and giving Calum his signature paternal look. Calum waved him off, and shook his head.

"Our anniversary isn't until the 19th," Calum stated matter-of-factly, raising a triumphant eyebrow at Ashton. The latter sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"Check your phone, and tell me what day it is."

"What?"

"Check your _phone_ , Calum."

Calum glowered at a defiant Ashton, before tugging his phone out of his pocket, and unlocking it. His jaw fell open as his eyes wandered to the small ' _January 20th_ ' below the time. Cal looked up at Ashton with wide eyes, before taking off out of the apartment in search of his boyfriend.

Calum liked to think that he knew Michael like the back of his hand, and that when Michael was upset he'd go to the same place as always.

At this moment, Calum was thankful for being so in shape as he jogged quickly towards the arcade a good block away from their apartment. He felt bad now for calling Michael a brat, because Cal knew how much their anniversary meant to him. Michael had even _told_ Calum that he was getting them dinner, and to be home by 8PM, but he had still forgotten like the major asshole he was.

Calum arrived, out of breath and panting, at the arcade and stumbled over to the register. The dark skinned boy merely raised an impressive eyebrow at Calum, continuing to wipe down the already impeccable counter.

"Kevin, have you seen Mike?" Calum begged, knowing full well that Kevin had a sweet spot for the pale boy and if Michael didn't want to be found, Kevin would honor it. "Please, I messed up bad."

"I know you did," Kevin hummed, a smirk pulling at his features. Calum let out a whine, trying to give Kevin his best puppy dog eyes possible, bottom lip jutting out further than usual. 

Kevin looked down at the tanned boy, before sighing and pointing towards the back of the arcade, towards the first-person shooter zombie games.

Calum barely yelped a 'Thanks!' before he was sprinting towards the back of the arcade, frantically searching for the love of his life. He spotted the obnoxious feather first, sticking out of the boy's hair at an awkward angle. Calum rushed toward him, a smile on his face.

"Michael! There you are, babe." Calum grinned, moving forward to wrap his tanned arms around Michael, who quickly dropped the gun, mid-game, back into the slot and walked off. 

Calum stared after him with wide eyes, confused and maybe just a little hurt. But, he pushed it down, knowing that his baby was even more hurt than he was, and Michael was the most important thing in his life.

So, he did the most responsible thing he could do in this situation: he followed him.

*

"Michael," Calum whined, puppy dog eyes drooping. "It's been an hour! Can't you just yell at me or something?"

Michael stayed stubbornly ignorant of Calum's pleas, and continued trying to shoot basketballs into the small hoop. 

"Fine," Calum huffed, before getting on his knees a few feet away from his boyfriend. A few people looked at him in confusion but continued their game playing. 

"Michael Gordon Clifford," Calum started loudly, causing Mike to minutely flinch. "I love you, a lot. I know I'm a selfish prick and you have every right to hate me.

"But, I will spend every day of my life making it up to you if it takes that long. Why? Because I love you _so fucking much_ and I'd do everything and anything for you, Michael. Even if you want me to go streaking through the snow _again_ , I'll do it. I'm so _so_ sorry that I messed up on the dates, I was positive that January 19th was tomorrow. Turns out it was yesterday, and I feel _horrible_. You know from experience that I'm a dumbass, Mike, but I love you so much and -!" 

"I love you, too." Calum was cut off from his long, rambling speech as Michael threw himself into Calum's arms and whispered the four meaningful words into his ear. 

"How about we go get dressed up and head out for a nice dinner, huh? Anywhere you want, baby." Calum cooed, softly rubbing the smaller boy's back as he nuzzled his face into Calum's shoulder.

"Pizza?"

"Pizza."

**Author's Note:**

> preorder sounds good feels good on iTunes :-)


End file.
